[EricH]

I also forgot about the toe-dipping. I find that it works very well on parents, though. Maybe better than on engineers. You get a parent who has some skill the team needs, say carpentry. You ask them to do one job that has a pretty clearly defined set of parameters, say put together a prototype or build the crate.

At the end of the season, they're probably doing two or three jobs with the team. Now you've got them for a few years. You have a few years to convince them that yes, they want to stay after they don't have a student on the team (easier if you can also grab younger siblings).